CLOZE CRITERION SCORES FOR COMPREHENSION LEVELS AMONG SELECTED NIGERIAN SECOND LANGUAGE READERS

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Date
1996
Authors
Umolu, Joanne J.
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Abstract
The study was designed to establish criterion scores which would enable teachers to use the teacher-constructed cloze test, an informal reading assessment instrument, to predict how well Nigerian L2 students can comprehend the reading material used for their class. This is necessary in view of the evidence that a large amount of the reading material used in Nigerian schools today is too difficult for the students to comprehend. In this correlational study, four cloze passages drawn from Integrated Science texts were administered in six schools in Jos yielding a total of 797 JSS2 and 602 SSS2 passages completed by L2 readers. Miscue analysis was carried out on each of the 100 cloze tests randomly selected for each of the four passages. Each miscue was classified according to its semantic and syntactic acceptability and the relationships between cloze scores and patterns of miscue types were examined. Regression analysis was used to predict the proportion of semantically acceptable miscues associated with each cloze score. Based on this, predicted comprehension levels were established for cloze scores for use with students at JSS2 and SSS2 levels. For example, cloze scores of 44% predict comprehension levels of 73% among JSS2 and 72% among SSS2 readers while cloze scores of 58% predict comprehension levels of 88% at both class levels. Recommendations are made for the training of secondary teachers in the development, administration and interpretation of cloze testing using the comprehension levels established in the study. Miscue patterns were also examined to find out unique processing strategies among Nigerian L2 readers. The findings showed that these readers rely heavily on semantic information to make meaning from syntactically difficult text. An observed trade-off between use of syntactic and semantic cues supports the interactive-compensatory views of the reading process. The implications of this for L2 reading instruction include the need for teachers to build on the ability of the readers to process semantically while improving their use of English syntactic cues while reading
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Dissertation submitted to Faculty of Education Ahmadu Bello University Zaria Joanne J. Umolu in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of Phd degree in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) 1996
Keywords
CLOZE,, CRITERION,, SCORES,, COMPREHENSION,, LEVELS,, SELECTED,, NIGERIAN SECOND LANGUAGE READERS
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